Although best-known for making what is possibly the most sought-after
cart among classic game collectors in Chase the Chuckwagon,
Spectravision was actually one of the few game publishers that had a
decent lineup of 2600 titles. And if not for the videogame crash of
1983-84, they may have ended up with among the largest catalog of 2600
games.

Not merely content producing me-too clones like many others,
Spectravision sought to establish its identity by innovating rather
than imitating. In Mangia, you control a little boy
sitting at the table. Beneath the table is a dog and over your shoulder
is a window. Every few seconds, your mother approaches from the left
side of the screen carrying a huge bowl of pasta which she sets at
the table. When she leaves you must decide whether you want to eat
the pasta, throw it out the window or feed it to the dog before she
returns with another bowl! Other original games include Bumper
Bash, a terrific pinball contest where the flippers are controlled
by two paddle controllers, and The Challenge of Nexar, a
fast-paced first person shooter that requires you to shoot a predefined
number of beacons to move on to the next level.

Spectravision offered three games -- Bumper Bash,
Gas Hog and Mangia -- exclusively through
the Columbia House Record Club, making the aformentioned
titles extremely rare today. And as most people know by now, Spectravision
partnered with Ralstin Purina in offering Chase the Chuckwagon,
a game that was only available via special offer mail order to customers of
Purina's products (like Puppy Chow). Finally, Spectravision allegedly made
Save the Whales available for play to subscribers of the
GameLine service, a modem gaming service by Control
Video Corporation. Save the Whales was among the games listed in
CVC's Gameline catalog, but nobody has yet to confirm to have ever played
the game.

Numerous companies, including Atari themselves, promised computer
keyboard add-ons but failed to deliever... except Spectravision.
The CompuMate keyboard was only briefly brought to market
just before the videogame shake-out, however, making it a rarity among
rarities. The CompuMate was more widely availble overseas by a
company called Universum, making that version of the computer
slightly easier to find (though not by much.)

As was the case of many other companies that canceled games
as a result of the changing market climate, Spectravision had
big plans to release a large number of titles for the 2600
before they threw in the towel sometime in 1984. Vortex
was hyped as the world's first real 3-D video game for the home.
Gamers were to put on the special "Spectra-Vision" 3-D glasses
and maneuver your shuttle through the meteor showes and repel the
Hostile invaders. Sector Alpha was to introduce
"Spectra-Sound," adding speech to your 2600 without any
additional hardware. Drive 'Em Crazy was a port of a
relatively unknown arcade game from Status Games.
Vertinko was based on the famous Japanese game of
"Pachinko." Protobob was essentially a clone of Surround
and the light cycle stage in the coin-op game Tron. Spectravision
also announced an official "Romper Room" series of early
learning educational programs for the 2600: Do Bee's first alphabet,
Romper Room's Countdown to fun and The Street Where You Live.

Note: Spectravision later changed their name to Spectravideo
sometime in late 1983, so don't be surprised if some of the labels
on your cartridges have the Spectravideo name instead.